2/07/2002 @ 2:42PM

Late To The Party, Sun Pushes Linux

Now that Linux software has found a home throughout corporate America,
Sun Microsystems
is finally saying that it’s in the Linux business with both feet.

Sun’s
president and chief operating officer,
Ed
Zander
Ed Zander
, tried to convince listeners on a conference call that his company has long been a staunch supporter of Linux. Zander said Sun has been selling low-cost Linux-based servers under its Cobalt brand and that it has been a significant contributor of intellectual property to Linux developers.

Curiously, he said the media, analysts and even customers didn’t understand how committed his company is to Linux. Perhaps that’s because Sun has until now only dipped its big toe in Linux waters. Previous reluctance about Linux can be seen as an effort to protect its flagship Solaris franchise, but Sun’s new strategy resembles a cannonball.

Sun’s Linux initiatives include general-purpose servers running Linux, development of an entire suite of infrastructure software called SunOne on Linux, compatibility tools so that Linux applications can run on Sun’s Solaris operating system and a range of professional services for Linux.

Sun Microsystems
#38 on 400 Best Big Cos.
Sun Looks To Eclipse IBM Gains
“We wanted to clarify our [Linux] position,” Zander said. “This is about offering Windows NT users an alternative to get out of the [Microsoft] environment.”

It may also be about competing on more fronts against
IBM
, which was an early and prominent supporter of Linux. In fact, IBM last week said that it has already recouped most of its $1 billion investment in Linux through sales of hardware, software and services.

Zander pooh-poohed suggestions that today’s announcements, which do not include availability of any products, are defensive. Sun criticized IBM’s strategy as being too convoluted because they carry so many operating systems. Indeed, as recently as Jan. 18, Sun was extolling the benefits of its one-platform strategy.

“Sun is a low-cost provider by concentrating on one-chip technology, the SPARC architecture, and one operating environment, the Solaris platform,” Chief Executive
Scott
McNealy
Scott McNealy
said in a press release announcing fiscal second-quarter numbers.

But Sun can’t make that claim today since hardware, software and services resources will now be spread out to cover Linux as well as Solaris. Additionally, forthcoming Sun servers will use chips compatible with the
Intel
architecture rather than Sun’s own SPARC chips.

It’s unclear whether these systems will be sold under the Sun brand or Cobalt, which was a small server company that Sun bought in 2000. When asked about branding, a Sun executive said it wasn’t going to “get into the minutia” of marketing at this time.

Not exactly the most ringing of endorsements, and neither is the positioning by Sun of its Linux servers as “low end.” That implies they can’t do the heavy lifting of, say, some of Sun’s more expensive Unix servers.

The Linux news comes a day after Sun’s storage announcements, which was described by Drew Brosseau of SG Cowen as “little more than a repackaging of existing products.” The announcement was a play by Sun to sell “end-to-end” storage solutions against market leader
EMC
. Also today, the Financial Times reports that Sun will file (yet another) lawsuit against
Microsoft
for using its Windows monopoly to thwart competition from Sun’s Java programming language.